Bellwether
by The creepy Nocuous Kee
Summary: Something so innocent and child-like shouldn't be turned into a game for adults like this. It's menacing, and frankly... quite low.
1. Alienated

"Now, let me explain this to you all to see if you can get it this time. A half-life is the time it takes for something to dwindle down to half of its initial substance. Are you all following me so far?"

The class mumbled out soft responses of 'sure' and 'whatever' as their eyelids drooped down threateningly.

"So if we take this equation..." The teacher took a moment to write letters and numbers on the white board in front of him, just above the poorly erased math lesson from the day before. "...And we apply it to this word problem, what do you get?"

The unresponsive students hesitated to do anything more than substitute the numbers in. After a few awkward moments of the teacher staring hopefully at the teenagers he was in charge of, however remarkably futile it really was, he moved closer to one of the students and slapped his hand on the desk to try to get their attention.

"Come on! Whip out your calculators and get to solving! I am not going to go over this a third time!" A few groans from the more unwilling students and a stubborn teacher going off about bad grades on tests later, the class had taken the most of two minutes it _should _take to solve the problem, as well ten minutes more.

Of course, they wouldn't really have known how long that actually was, as they probably wouldn't have felt like doing the math. They took twelve minutes.

The teacher sighed rather dramatically for an old man and continued on with his lessons, desperately trying to clue his students in on what was happening. The only teenager that happened to be listening at least somewhat intently was the class nerd that sat all the way in the front, pocket protector and all, with his neatly organized math folder and pencils. However, he too was drowsy from the lesson.

Not a single kid inside the primitive classroom, with its hot and stuffy atmosphere, (Courtesy of no air conditioning, fifty plus kids, and a warm, almost-summer day.) moved their hand another inch towards their pencils or pens. Except, for perhaps, the young student that sat all the way in the back of the classroom, away from the windows.

That student actually happened to have an array of different pencils of the colored variety and was jotting down inside a notebook carelessly and cautiously noiselessly, paying no attention to the teacher up ahead.

Upon closer inspection, you could see her drawing a crude and unprofessional drawing of what you would probably guess to be a bright and cheery green-grass landscape, equipped with a bright, apocalypse-inducing sun and all. It was only just that she had nothing better to do than take part in a rather miscellaneous hobby that she was obviously no good in, and it wasn't like she could pay attention to the teacher up front and learn math either. That was not an option.

So when the bell rung two minutes later, she had quickly packed her bags and was about to transcend from the humid classroom when the teacher had put a notice on the board, not bothering to speak anymore than he had to. The notice on the board was a bit large, anyways.

**'RUSITICA BUSINESS/SCHOOL AFFILIATION PROJECT: STAY DURING CLASS 4/16 TO LEARN ON HOW TO PARTICIPATE' **it read and the student that had colored so similarly to a five-year old had indeed noticed, and after a few seconds worth of thinking, had slumped back down in her seat in curiosity for the event. A few other stayed as well, morphing into groups of friends, sitting on desks and talking animatedly, unlike a few moments before. There were no other women there, and it wasn't too much of a surprise for the student, either.

Apparently women in Rusitica had no say in business and if it weren't for the more modern times coming afoot, they almost wouldn't have any say in school either. The student thought that was really dumb, and knew that despite the uncaring attitude that transcended her own class, females could be much more staunch and respectable towards knowledge than a male could very well _ever _be. It just happened to matter on what type of person you were.

As a couple more minutes passed, the student started to wonder when the meeting was actually going to take place. They only had a thirty minute lunch after all, and she had heard that the business and school affiliation project had a lot to cover. What she had also heard from eavesdropping on other students about it was that it involved a trip of some kind. What for, she did not know.

She fiddled around with the ID tag on her backpack for a bit and stared bored at it, reading the name on it over and over and over. 'Kamille Bay'. She liked the name and it adorably rhymed with her mother's own identification, but there was just something about it that didn't click with her. It probably had something to do with her rather confusing appearance.

"Alright kids." The teacher had sneakily moved in front of the classroom while Kamille happened to not be paying attention. "The Rusitica Business and School Affiliation Project was what the Rusitica Business Corp. had made up along with the Devon Corp. and Silph Co. _Both _of those businesses happen to be very respectable companies in regions far away from our own, so I recommend you treat this whole thing with utter seriousness. Those two businesses and their kind presidents had nicely offered to come up with a project alongside Rusitica's own, slowly growing business, and everyone knows that any growth here is welcome. Times are tough.

"Now, I'll tell you all about what's happening, hopefully before the advocates of the project even arrive. First off, this project isn't so much of a project as it is a trip. You _will _be travelling to either," The teacher took his time with going back to the desk and grabbing a single slip of paper. "Ho-in ...? And Can-too. Anyways, the people who are applying for this will be split into groups of two by what the advocates believe you should go to. Now, the reason for _why _you will be travelling.

"As you all know, Rusitica is known for being... well, uh. Rather isolated. Now, this project is supposed to change that! We are out on a limb here, trying to get youngsters to be alive and represent our region well. We want you to go out and communicate and meet different people and represent this slowly growing place as a whole! Now, you might be thinking that's a bit far-fetched, but in reality, it is great.

"Not only will you become more mature in this communication project, but you will also learn and observe something entirely new." The teacher took a moment to gather a dramatic pause from his twenty-person audience. "Pokémon."

Immediately a murmur rang up from everyone around Kamille, while she herself piped up in excitement and knowing. Pokémon was something she read up a lot on.

In fact, you could say she was a... Pokéxpert.

"Everyone, everyone. Calm down! Now, I know that absolutely none of you know more than a nick of information about Pokémon in general," Kamille grinned almost smugly from the back of the room at that. "So you don't have to worry about ever having to go near them." Kamille frowned almost sadly from the back of the room at that.

"We just want you to view Pokémon as a whole, to get to know the culture of Ho-in and Can-too. To get _acquainted _with the people and their ideals and their animals!"

It was at that moment when the advocates the teacher had mentioned earlier decided to walk in. There were three of them in total, all of whom were dressed in very dark suits as if they were the well-dressed messengers of death himself. They were tall and particularly intimidating, with their piercing and observational glances. They stood straight and upright in front of the classroom and never spoke a word as everyone stared at them. Finally, the teacher woke from his own stupor and walked to greet them.

"Uh, this... Class! Are the advocates. I can only tell you so much about this whole thing, so if you have any questions, you may speak to them now." The advocate in the middle spoke up soon afterwards, almost cutting the elder teacher off.

"I am Jacob. My colleagues are Dem and Aak. Any questions?" A kid from the middle of the classroom who was sitting _on _a table with his circle of friends raised his hand in an unsure way. "Yes?" The kid jumped only slightly at the loud tone of Jacob and opened his mouth to speak.

"So, uh. What do we have to pay to do this? With expenses and everything?"

Jacob smiled in a way that made Kamille feel as if it wasn't supposed to be all-friendly.

"You will not have pay anything at all."

"Sweet!" Jacob's particular omniscient and scary smile glowed a little more.

"Precisely. The reason that the Devon Corporation and Silph Company are in on this is to help _fund _the event taken place. They reside in Hoenn and Kanto respectively and in return of the Rusitica Corporation being suppliers of stock that they both need, they are paying by allowing their Rusitician business counterpart to have the ability to let their youths travel abroad. A rather win-win deal, no?" A few students nodded, with Kamille being included. Albeit, hers was a little more enthusiastic than the rest. Everything was going perfectly so far.

"But we just can't just let _anyone _go, and as to not mooch off those kind companies too much, we are putting the tap for passengers at ten. A small start for a communication ordeal, but it is just the beginning." That didn't sound good.

"So, what's the criteria?" Jacob looked at the student that had spoken up with raising his hand with disdain, but answered the male teen's question nonetheless.

"That is for us to know. We don't want any of you to feel as if... You will never have a chance at going." Was it just her, or did he seem to glance at Kamille when he said that? That certainly wasn't good.

"So we are going to have you take a little quiz. Nothing too formal. Just two or three questions. They will be answered out loud to us. This will take up the rest of the time here." Jacob pulled a stool from one of the desks and sat casually on top while his cohorts just backed up and leaned against a wall, observing.

"Question one. What... is your view on... strength?"

"What?"

"What kind'a fuckin' omnipotent ass question is that?"

"Excuse me?"

"Ralph, you can leave _this instant_!" Kamille looked in the direction of the rude speaker and for only a few seconds thought that it was the nerd from before, but realized it was just an ignorant, long-haired kid. Ralph did end up leaving, with the teacher calling out, "And don't think of even _going _on this trip now!" as he slammed the door behind him.

"Sorry about that, Jacob. You may... continue." Jacob shuffled around on his stool a little more than a seemingly mature thirty year-old man without ADD should have and pointed to a kid who happened to be sitting all the way to the right from the man's perspective.

"You. Your view on strength?"

"Oh... it, uh. It's something that you get can get from working out in the weight room all day." Without saying a word, Jacob pointed to the next person.

"It's also something you can get from knowledge. Knowledge is power!" That actually was the nerd from before. Jacob pointed to the next person and it was only in the middle of his answer did Kamille's usually common anxiety start to fester.

What would she say? How would she say it? Was the question a trick question? What was even the _purpose _of the question, anyways?

Jacob pointed to the next person. Fifteen more people to go, Kamille had calculated nervously. She was the last. That was worse.

So, to tackle the problem at the heart of it, Kamille pondered on the first question that came to mind, biting her lip nervously. 'What would she say?' She could say something like what the first guy mentioned, but that was sort of dumb in her opinion. Besides, she didn't work out at the gym at all. Hypocritical, much?

"I think strength is what you feel you are good at! It's your strength, and that is what strength is!"

Oh, twelve more. That answer, Kamille liked a little better, even if it was just a tad obtuse. She knew what he meant, though.

So, what? Strength is what you're good at? Strength is your own, personal power?

"It's obviously your ability to lift a truck off from the parking lot it's on."

Nine. That answer killed off a few of Kamille's brain cells as well, so her anxiety rose even more.

So far, strength, to Kamille, was basically what made you happy? What made you... fight? To Kamille, her family, in a sense, made her happy, and helped her find the 'strength' to carry on everyday. Maybe strength was something that gave you the power to fight for things?

Five.

But fight for _what _things? And was that to be meant emotionally or physically? Certainly, Kamille had no intention of fighting someone in a boxing match, but...

Four.

Maybe it wasn't so much as fighting for a certain thing in general. Actually, looking back on it, 'fighting' wasn't really a good word to use. It seemed too up-front.

Three.

But what was another word for 'fighting'? Tackling? Battling? Those were aggressive words as well. What was fighting supposed to mean, in a non-literal sense?

Two.

A reason? A reason... to fight? Strength is a reason? No, no. That's not it. Strength is... just a thing. Strength is...

One.

"...Kamille?" Kamille looked up suddenly, shocked out of a thought process that she was highly indulged in. Glancing around, she noticed that everyone was looking at her, waiting for her to answer. A few had disgusted looks on their faces, as if they had just found out where a bad smell was coming from. Jacob was looking her exasperatingly while the teacher was shocked and worried.

Kamille stuttered to find her words.

"U-uh, I think strength i-is..."

"Speak up." Jacob said a little forcibly. Kamille squeaked a bit and rose her voice.

"Strength, to me, is..."

One last chance to think, and to do it quickly.

Strength was something that helped you fought. For what? A reason. What reason? Not known yet. Family helped with it. Wait... reason is equal to purpose... right?

"... A purpose. Strength is something that is gained from the help of others... To help you fight for something... important to you."

That seemed perfect! It applied to every sense. Fighters got help from their mentors to help learn how to fight because fighting was important to them! Those who were knowledgeable got help from books and elders to help learn about things important to them! It was the best answer ever!

"What a dumb answer." She heard someone mumble. Immediately, Kamille's confidence in her answer dwindled, even when Jacob smiled his omnipotent smile. Kamille herself didn't seem to notice that and just dropped her head down to look at her desk.

"You know, I think we're done with the questions. All of your answers summed up what we needed for you all quite perfectly." Jacob stood from his stool and moved it back towards the desk. "I assure you that ten people from this lucky little classroom will be able to have fun in Kanto or Hoenn. Just don't get your hopes up."

He chuckled darkly as he fixed his suit jacket. As someone who had walked into the room silently, demanding attention, he now seemed to be a mysterious and charismatic figure to Kamille. If, at least, a little off-putting.

"Don't call us. We'll call you." He called as the three of them left the room in a quick swoop.

A few people laughed at his farewell joke, while some others just shook their heads. Kamille didn't pay any attention to the joke at all and in a bout of embarrassment, put her backpack on her shoulders and walked out of the classroom and into the short hallway, where the three visitors had already seemed to disappear.

Instead of making her way to the lunch room, she moved out towards the front door and left, caring very little about the fact that school was not yet over. It held no point to her, anyways.

* * *

**Hope you guys enjoyed? **

**I feel like I went a little too out there on the narrator dialogue there, so my apologies for that. I usually have a bit of trouble opening stories and I might have had a panic attack and delivered some utter garbage to the Pokémon fanbase on FF again because of that. I guess I didn't want it to be too boring for the potential readers, but I also didn't want a crackfic to ensue.**

**Anyways, I've actually put a lot of thought into this story. If there's ever any confusion or just curious questions that you want to ask, please do. I'm up for helping clear the misty fog of 'what the hell is happening here' or making it settle even more thickly on your mind~. **


	2. Bleak

"Mom? You home?" Kamille asked as she shut the front door behind her. She simultaneously took off her backpack and shoes, placing them next to each other on the floor of the small hallway, effectively not thinking about anyone else that might have wanted to step inside the home without tripping over a bag full of folders.

She moved down the hallway a bit and took a right turn into a small living room, adorned with green-schemed furniture that all seemed to revolve around a dainty glass coffee table. The coffee table itself had a fake sunflower inside a glass vase resting on top of it.

Kamille walked farther into the room, squinting at the darkness of it all. The curtains were covering the windows and no lights were on, which would have been unusual if Kamille's mom was actually there.

"I guess you're out, somewhere. Better for me, I suppose." Kamille flipped on a light switch and immediately everything turned bright and cheery inside the small space. Moving along more inside, Kamille entered the kitchen that was jointed to the living room by a counter.

Going up to the fridge, she opened it with a bored air and casually glanced inside, sighing sourly when she didn't seem to find anything she would have wanted to eat. She moved along to the cupboards next to it and repeated the process, grumbling irritably the longer she went without an interesting snack to munch on. Finding nothing at all, she opened the fridge again and grabbed a handful of Cip Berries, a type specifically grown in Rusitica, and no where else.

They were well-known for being unnecessarily spicy and sour and Kamille absolutely hated them. With a passion.

With a displeasing look on her face, she shut the fridge with her other hand and grabbed a paper towel off from the counter, placing the berries inside and wrapping them up carefully. Lazily, she walked back out of the kitchen, past the green furniture (Making sure to flip the light switch back off as she exited.), and into the hallway. She followed the bare length of the wooden floor to a flight of spiral stairs, climbing up them to reach an almost carbon copy of the hallway below.

Kamille walked up to a door and juggled the napkin-covered berries into her other hand, and then reaching for the doorknob with the other. Stopping for a second, she looked at the scribbled mess of a drawing that was taped to the door. It read 'welcome' in pink and had what appeared to be a young girl standing outside on some grass. Her hair was made of two lines that formed into pigtails and there was a giant brown mass standing next to her. The brown mass looked like it made no shape at all, but it also looked to be holding a grey... stick of some kind.

Smiling fondly, she opened the door and walked inside, glancing around as if she were looking for something in particular.

"Solid? You in here, buddy? I got you some Cip berries." She shut the door behind her slowly, and made her way over to her bed in the far corner of the room. She set the berries on the dresser next to it and lay down, covering herself in her blue, feather blanket in the process. "Well, wherever you're hiding... I'm taking a nap. The berries are up here next to me if you want any."

She rested her head on her pillow (Which also happened to be stuffed with feathers.) and closed her eyes. It took her a minute or two to finally fall asleep, but a few moments before she did, she heard a shuffling on her dresser, and finally, felt a small, warm body invite itself under the blankets to dig itself into her arms and take a nap with her.

* * *

"So, what do ya think, Jacob? Any of these kids worth bringin' along? We've gotta a'least bring ten with us." Jacob leaned back in the dark leather couch, sighing forlornly and rubbing his chin in thought.

"There were a few that caught my eye. Most of them were your typical selfish kids, but what can you do? They were raised in a desert wasteland in the middle of nowhere." Dem raised an eyebrow from his spot on an armchair and laughed as he drank from a dark bottle.

"Of course! God, these kids are just like any others. I feel bad for them. They're worse off." Jacob just sighed in a depressive manner and without looking up from his stuck gaze to the floor, he spoke to Dem.

"I'd rather you not drink so early in the morning. We have other business to attend to later, you know." Dem frowned and lowered his drink.

"I know. But it's not like I'm drinking fifty of them. Besides, there's no one even here to watch me do it." He gestured around the dark room. "The curtains aren't drawn, there's no lights on, and we're all sitting psyducks in a room like a bunch of mysterious idiots." Aak chuckled.

"But isn't that what we are? Mysterious?" Dem gave Aak a deadpanned expression, as if he could ever see it.

"Don't be weird." He took another short sip from his drink and turned back towards Jacob, who still appeared to be lost in thought. "Listen, Jacob. Just give us the list of kids you thought were _at least _a lil' golden, and if it's not ten, then who cares? We'll just add a random few to the pile."

Jacob shook his head.

"No, Dem. That the thing! We're not her to just pick a few random kids on top of a couple that could actually make a difference here. We need to think about this."

"Exactly! So we'll look through these kids folders and pick from those! It's not our fault that you didn't ask those boys back there more questions. You were supposed to come up with more." Jacob furrowed his eyebrows in frustration.

"No. Asking more wouldn't have done anything. The answers I got from those kids told me more about them than any prolific database ever could."

"Then why in the hell are you freaking out like this?"

Jacob looked up at Dem from the floor and his expression went from frustrated to just plain angry. He gritted his teeth and spoke through them while enunciating every word.

"I think you understand perfectly well why that is." The other shrunk down in his seat as his words pierced him like knives. It wasn't the words that made him hesitant to say more. It was the way they were said.

"Well," Dem whispered carefully in the tense silence. "Why don't we just start with looking through those special few kids files? We still have to start somewhere, huh?" Aak nodded in the darkness.

"I'll grab them for you." Aak walked over to a bar that was placed in the back of the room.

"You mind getting another bottle for me, Aak?" Dem shook his own drink a little, the splashes from inside being very audible to everyone in the room.

"Sure thing." Grabbing a thick pile of folders with one large arm and grabbing a bottle of what appeared to be beer in the other, he sauntered back to his two coworkers. Giving each item to their respective owners, he went back to leaning against the wall silently and creepily; watching them grab their items and opening them up.

Jacob had grasped the first folder and was looking through it. A second or two later, he guffawed at what he saw, closed the folder, and tossed it next to him carelessly. He did this for a couple more of the manila folders, and when they were tossed into what Aak guessed to be the 'loser' pile, some of the papers that had rested inside of them were strewn about.

Aak kept watching as Jacob finally picked up a folder, looked despondently inside, and let out a 'hm' in thought. He carefully closed it after another minute, placing it on the other side of him carefully, in contrast to the others. He also did this with the next few folders he picked up, and there was a particular folder that had happened to be filled with a number of yellow carbon papers. Other folders had one or two of those as well, but they actually happened to be pink. If there was any significance to the difference in color, Aak didn't know or actually care. His curiosity was further refrained as Jacob dug through that folder's files a little more, reading through them more than he had the others.

Frequently, he would let out a hum or two, and after what seemed to be some very careful consideration, he closed it up and set it next to him in the 'winner' pile hesitantly.

After sorting through the rest of the folders, Aak realized that there was only about eight in the pile that was made up of the lucky people that were going to be allowed to go, where there were eleven that weren't.

"What are you going to do about that?" He asked suddenly. Jacob looked at where he heard the voice come from and shrugged after a moment.

"We need to think about this seriously. We said that we _would _pick ten people, and I especially do not like going back on my word. However, we absolutely _cannot _pick people for this that aren't ready. They might not know it yet, but this project is much more important than they realize. You remember what the president of RBS said. 'These kids are what drives the fa-"

"The fate of Rusitica from now on. We all remember what he said." Dem interrupted. "And we all know how much more important the president is than keeping your promise to a bunch of seventeen or eighteen year old kids. The president sayed that we can only pick ten people this go round because it's a 'trial'. So, we take that eight there and instead of us shipping five kids to both Hoenn and Kanto, we send _four_. It won't make too much of a dent in our plans."

"No. I just think that 'the more the merrier'."

"We'll just have to live. Now, who's going where? These kids know when everything's going to happen, right?"

"It was written on the handout that we had the teachers pass out a month ago."

"Right. So, they know that a few lucky suckers will be leaving with us in two weeks. Let's just contact the ones that we picked out, arrange their leave of absence and everything else, and then they leave. Let's see." He walked next to Jacob and picked up four folders off of the winning pile. "These go to Hoenn." He dropped them onto one side of the leather foot rest next to him and grabbed the rest of the four from the couch.

"These go to Kanto." He dropped the four in a separate pile to the others. "We are going to Hoenn and we're watching over these kids because we have business in Rustboro as well and Aak goes with the ones heading to Kanto. Simple."

"...I guess it's all sorted. I'll start contacting everyone." Dem walked back to the armchair and fell into it.

"Are you going to call them?" Jacob picked up all eight folders and placed them under his arm, grabbing a black briefcase with his hand.

"Most of them. I believe I'll have to visit a few."

"Why?"

"Some have personal problems that I think need to be talked about beforehand."

* * *

"No, no. Solid, hand me _that _spoon. No! That's a fork. Yes, that spoon. Thank you." Kamille grabbed the spoon from the small brown figures grasp. Holding a bowl tightly, she placed the spoon inside and began mixing carefully, a confident and pleased smile on her face. Beginning to mix faster, the brown figure hopped onto the counter, holding a bone and waving it around. "No, you can't help me mix this with that. I've told you before."

The little cubone frowned and sat down on the counter, watching Kamille.

"This is going to be some delicious Cip soup, I tell you. It'll be exquisite. Not like last time." She laughed at the memory forming inside her head. "I don't even remember... _how _I burnt it, really. The Cip berries kinda... just _fried _over, I guess. Not entirely sure how it happened." She slowed down her mixing and placed the gooey mass of it in a pot. It ran out of the bowl slowly like cake mix and had an oddly ghost-white color to it, unlike what the berries looked like on the outside. Instead of being white, they were a very dark purple in color and had bright yellow spots all over them.

"Okay, Solid hop off here for a sec and let me place this on the stove so it can cook." Solid squeaked from the floor and Kamille huffed in response. "Yes, yes. Put the heat on low. I remember from last time, I'm not dumb."

Kamille place the pot on its designated spot and set the heat on low like she was told. Afterwards, she took the bowls and various liquid ingredients and placed them back where they needed to be, in the sink or otherwise. After cleaning up a bit more while talking to her oddly loud cubone, she went back to check on the soup she was making.

"I don't even see how you like this stuff, to be honest. It's gross. And it's not because of my cooking, either. I'll tell you that right now." Another squeak. "Oh hush. Besides, it looks like it's going to cook slow. Let's just go hang out and wait for it to finish in the living room. I can still watch it from there, you know." Kamille picked up Solid in her arms and moved out from the kitchen and onto a comfortable green couch.

"That was good, don't you think? I know you enjoyed those berries before you lay next to me, I had to clean the whole mess you made. And on my white dresser, too!" A sort of regretful squeak came from the Pokémon. Kamille gave a small, apologetic smile to him and patted him on the head. "Aw, it's not your fault. Honest."

They sat there like that for another few minutes, with the cubone resting lazily on Kamille's lap, and with her talking to him, always getting different emotional squeaks in response. In the process of talking about a rather horrible mishap in the kitchen from a few months ago, the doorbell to the house rang, and Kamille's anxiety from earlier that day came back full force.

"That... couldn't be Mom. She has her own keys, doesn't she?" Hesitantly, she got up from the couch, with the cubone climbing up and holding on protectively to her shoulder."You can't be there when I answer the door, though. You know that. Go on and run upstairs." She plucked him off of her shoulder and set him on the floor gently, much to his annoyance. The doorbell rang twice more and in a fit, Solid ran off upstairs. Kamille breathed in nervously, not liking the fact that she had to answer the door to someone she probably didn't want to ever talk to.

Which was practically everyone. Not that she had any personal grudge against people, it was just that talking to strangers in general made her feel very... awkward inside. Almost apprehensive. It was frightening, to say the least. She wished that wasn't the case, but she had found it difficult to just cast the feeling off.

Moving along, she made her way to the front door she had entered from a few hours before. Looking cautiously out the window, she let out an exclamation when she saw nothing but darkness. The doorbell rang once more and she called out to the person on the other side of the door.

"W-who is it?"

"Your _mother_."

"Oh!" Kamille recognized the voice immediately and moved to the side to let her mother in after opening the door. "Mom, I thought you had your own keys?"

"I did. Not anymore. I left them at a friend's house and I couldn't get a hold of him afterwards. So I'll go back to get them tomorrow. I knew you would be home, so I didn't think of it as a big deal."

"Oh, okay." Kamille shut the door and locked it behind her. "I was just worried, I mean. I thought you were some stranger." Emille, Kamille's mother, just giggled a bit.

"That's alright, Kam. I'm actually glad you decided to ask who it was before you opened the door. It's too dark out there for that."

"Yeah. I hate how it gets so dark here so early! What's up with that, anyways?" Emille shook her head, her long golden locks swirling around with it.

"I have no idea. Are you cooking, by the way? I smell something." Kamille and Emille both moved into the living room, with Solid running down the stairs to come back and greet the two of them. Emille picked him up and gave him a hug, much to Solid's enjoyment.

"Yeah, I'm making Cip soup for Solid. He loves the stuff." Emille eyed Kamille warily, still holding Solid.

"You made sure to set the temperature on low, right?" Kamille sighed dramatically as well as loudly.

"_Yes, Mom. I did._" Emille rolled her eyes at her daughter and wagged a finger at her.

"Don't talk to me like that."

"Sorry."

"I'm sure you mean it."

"_Of course-_" At that moment, the doorbell from the front door rang again, and this time, there were a series of knocks followed by it. The familial pair of mother and daughter shared a wary glance and like before, Solid jumped out of Emille's arms, but instead of hiding in Kamille's bedroom, he went behind the counter in the kitchen.

Being much more courageous than her daughter, Emille rushed up to the door to greet the stranger that had business to attend there, while Kamille stayed in the living room and sat on one of the couch. She wasn't expecting there to be any visitors coming in because their household was a pretty lonely one. They weren't unfriendly folk, they just so happened to be very solitary. They enjoyed the company of their own family rather than a friend's.

Listening in from her spot in the living room, Kamille heard her mother ask who the person happened to be, like Kamille had did earlier. Kamille wasn't able to listen to what the other person said, courtesy of him or her being _outside _rather than _inside _and was only able to hear her mother give a somewhat confused 'ok' in reply and open the door. She also heard a 'she's in the living room' from her mother, which also made Kamille feel confused. It couldn't have been a teacher of some sort. Kamille _had _skipped school, but she had done it so many times before that she had a feeling that no one would ever bother to care about her unsaid leave of school grounds. No one seemed to care that much over it.

Waiting with apprehension for whoever it was to come in, she fiddled with her black sweatshirt sleeves. Her eyebrows furrowed in worry and she brought her legs onto the couch, as if bringing them in front of her could hide her.

She looked up as she heard footsteps approach, only to see Jacob, the man from earlier. Her nervousness didn't disappear as he smiled in a more gentle way than he had done earlier and moved around to sit down on the couch opposite from her. He turned his head around to look at Emille quickly before speaking.

"I'm sorry, I feel like I am inviting myself in, sitting on your couch so casually without permission. I apologize for that, but my enthusiasm for this project is at a high right now and I feel like I must address something very quickly. If you do not mind, I'd love it if you stayed here with me and Kamille during this chat, it very much involves you too." Emille raised an eyebrow at Jacob and nodded calmly, despite being thrown off by his formal words. Even Kamille was surprised by it, and she had only guessed that it was because he was in a house with two ladies, rather than a large room full of men.

"Of course." She took a spot on one of the green armchairs. "You mentioned at the door that this was about... a trip that my daughter had actually brought up with me about a month before. Are you, a planner of the trip of some sort? An advisor?"

"Oh, yes. I am actually here to talk about the trip in detail. See, Kamille has been one of the few people chosen to go on the trip." Kamille brightened up at those words. She was going to be able to go one the trip and leave, even if she wasn't going to ever really come face to face with another Pokémon other than her Solid. Of course, her cubone was more than enough, she was lucky enough to even have the... slightly illegal pet in her household. It was just that having a Pokémon... made her want to see _more_. Why her own region wasn't inhabited by their own variations of creatures made her curious to the core, but upon research in libraries from times before, she hadn't found a single thing that could lead her closer to an answer.

"But there's a problem here, and I hope to eradicate it quickly." There had to be a but. "You see... I find that you are a very smart... female, Kamille. I've had the chance to be able to look through your school files. You've _had_ good grades for quite a while and previous teachers have stated how creative and eager to learn you are, but there's something that I've noticed from your more recent records." Kamille already knew where this was going.

"I-I-" She mumbled quietly, trying to get a word in. Jacob didn't hear her and kept speaking.

"As someone who would like for you to go on this... adventure, if you will, we have to talk about these things. Like your... excuse me if this makes you feel uncomfortable, but I feel it's necessary to bring up. Your depression."


	3. Cheerful

"Excuse me, Mr. Jacob, but I don't think bringing up my daughter's depression out of nowhere is good. Do we _really_ have to talk about this? I'd rather not make my Kamille feel worse than she already does every single day, mind you." Emille eyed Jacob carefully, watching him with a sense of protectiveness over Kamille. Her voice came out like screeching metal topped with whipped cream, smooth enough to sound beautiful, but harsh enough for Jacob to realize that he was walking a fine line with bringing up an uncomfortable topic.

Jacob looked back at Emille, stumbling down in his thought process as her words pierced through him. He stared for a bit, mulling over what words he should choose for his next sentence carefully and spoke, his voice drawled out slowly, as if a little apprehensively.

"I... Only want to make sure Kamille is... _better suited _for this trip... than she would have been if I had not known about this. You see, she'll be alone with kids her age for quite some time and since she will also be in a new place... I wanted to make sure that she wouldn't do anything too... drastic." Emille glared at Jacob.

"Oh? What kind of _drastic thing_?" In a desperate attempt to not bury himself further into the ground, Jacob spoke quicker, his mind racing as to not displease the beautiful blonde sitting separately to the left of him.

"Nothing, nothing at all, ma'am! I mean, I just want her to feel _good _about this trip the entire time and not feel disheartened in any way during it. I'm really only thinking of Kamille. As an advocate of this trip I felt the need to talk to you and her personally before setting everything up permanently."

"I still don't think that talking about it any further than bringing it up is good. Besides, depression is a continuous thing, it's not just-"

"_Mom_. It's okay."

Emille was hardly able to hear her daughter over her own rising voice, but as an experienced mother of raising a quiet, socially inept child, she was able to pick up the sound of the quiet mumble.

"...What?" It wasn't that Emille hadn't been able to make out the words that had come out of Kamille's mouth. It was the disbelief that she had said something in the first place and had also mentioned that it was okay, after many years of refusing to talk to therapists over and over and over again. After a long time of keeping silent, Kamille was trying to speak up.

"It's okay. I'll talk. J-Just a bit." Jacob, not having said anything after Kamille's (not) outburst, clapped his hands together in enthusiasm and scooted closer to the edge of the couch.

"Alright. First thing's first. What... causes your depression? Is it triggered in any way, so we can avoid it at all possible?" Kamille shuffled on her spot on the couch, fiddled with her sweatshirt sleeves and then played with her hands.

"Um... Not, really. It just... _happens_. It could happen from anything close to being called a name o-or from simply something... um, _bad _happening to me." Jacob paused after her answer.

"Oh. Well, are you on any sort of medication for this?"

"... No."

"What caused your depression?"

"That's... a little too personal."

"Is it from the way you look? I mean, have people been picking on your appearance?" Kamille resisted the urge to look up at Jacob's face, to see the expression he had. Did he have the look of pity on his facial features? If it was real pity, then there was no true sadness for her there and the feeling of being felt sorry for, but not sad for, just made things worse somehow.

Was it fake pity? Where nothing was real, not the sadness or the sympathy; just a roundabout way of getting people to think you cared even though you didn't and they just wanted you to like them? Even when you were _obviously _hurting?

Instead of being sympathetic, was he somehow empathetic? Behind the face of a thirty year-old man with long, slicked back black hair and ocean-blue, soulful eyes, did he happen to be _different _in appearance at a younger age like she was?

Whatever it was, Kamille kept looking down at her knees, not wanting to check. She didn't even look up just a tiny bit to take a sneak peek at her own appearance from the glass on the table in front of her. She didn't want to see the reason why she felt forced to wear black sweatshirts and jeans everyday, why she didn't feel like putting on make-up was allowed for her, why she didn't even feel like the female that she was.

"... Yes. But I've learned to drown out the n-name calling." Jacob scooted even closer towards Kamille to hear her almost silent words. He was dangerously close to falling off, but didn't seem to notice.

"What about your," He turned to look at Emille for a quick second, noticing her careful, piercing gaze and how she nodded almost a little to subtly. He then turned back to Kamille. "Parents divorce? I read something about that in the file they gave me."

Oh, the divorce. Thirteen years of marriage, eleven of which were practically forced through a meat grinder and fed through the mouth of a much younger Kamille. It was almost her birthday when her parents decided to finally split. It was a month after when everything was legalized. She'd hardly seen her father before, but now she was lucky enough to see him a day out of the whole month.

Of course, Kamille had seen the divorce coming, even as an eleven year-old who hadn't even reached puberty yet. Especially since none of her fellow students or teachers had decided to try and keep it away from her either. 'Oh, I'm sure that your parents are making things hard for you at home, if you can't finish your homework, that's okay.' 'Miss Bay, do you feel the need to talk to a counselor about your household situation?' 'Kamille's Mom and Dad argue a lot more than my own parents!'

The people of Rusitica were very nosy in contrast to her own family. Even before everything had started falling down like heavy rain, people were already trying to help, in the worst way possible. However, the only thing Kamille had ever said to them was 'no'.

And now, talking (somewhat) to Jacob, she was voicing her opinion (as vague as it might be) towards him and was doing it... for what? A chance to leave for a summer? Just for some stupid, indescribably small amount of time away? A brief amount of sunlight in a hazy world? A little happiness to take control after six years of pent-up depression?

Yes. Some _thing _had to change.

"... It was long a long time ago."

"But did it trigger your depression?"

"I g-guess you could say that..."

"What about-" Kamille's eye flickered up for a brief second, going back down to look at her knees faster than Jacob could ever recognize.

"M-Mister... Jacob?" Emille shifted in her seat, waiting to hear the rest of the conversation. If anything, she didn't like Jacob's unsympathetic questioning, and at any signs of her daughter showing discomfort more than how she usually did when near strangers, she would _not _hesitate to kick this man out of her house. She watched him raise his eyebrows in surprise of Kamille cutting him off, his mouth slightly agape from being stopped in the middle of a sentence. He snapped his mouth shut and then opened it again a few seconds later to speak.

"Yes?" Kamille took a little amount of time to speak up, building up confidence.

"I'd... I know that you think that m-my... Depression could really g-get in the way of the trip, but I promise that... That's not true. Going to Hoenn or Kanto..." She almost smiled, hoping that Jacob was at least somehow impressed with her knowledge of the correct pronunciation of those two other regions. She took pride in knowing what her fellow Rusiticians didn't. "Will really m-make me happier. Trust me."

Jacob took in what Kamille had said and contemplated over it for a moment. Kamille didn't seem like the type to lie - and why would she anyways? As someone who was supposed to watch over her during the trip (she had fortuitously landed in the Hoenn pile), he wanted to make sure that nothing went wrong, and even if he was ignorant towards the subject, he didn't want her depression to hinder herself or anyone else. But if going on the trip just made her _happier _in general, than what could typically go wrong?

He would just have to watch over her more carefully than the others and that shouldn't prove to be a problem. She seemed more quiet and down to earth than her other classmates. Even when he had noticed her in the class, his attention wasn't diverted to her at all, she just repelled it. She was a wallflower.

"Alright. Well, I guess I won't press you any further on it. If you are going to be happier, than why not?" He smiled again, trying to ease Kamille even though she still wasn't looking up at him. "By all means, we should just force you to go on, even though I do not think we will have a problem bringing you."

Kamille smiled a teeny bit, keeping her head down, but looking up with here eyes to show that she appreciated his light-heartedness about everything. If anything, his scary mysterious still lingered, but his desperate attempt to be charismatic and kind was starting to take its toll on her. Jacob noticed her gesture, as well as Emille and in an attempt to jump back into the conversation and learn more about what was happening, she spoke.

"Excuse me, but is there any way possible I can get more information on this trip? I'd like to know more details before sending my daughter away for... I don't even know how long!"

"Ah, yes! First of all, the trip costs nothing, so you are okay economically! We would not want you spending more money on your child than you already have to and with the state that your region is in, we felt it necessary to avoid costs of all kinds." He turned his body towards Emille and moved back into the couch while the mother herself crossed her legs and straightened her back some more, prepared to listen intently. "The trip starts next month, just before summer starts and the school year ends. Kamille will be forced to take her finals a little early to accommodate, but there will be a room she can visit to take it, which is where the other students will be in as well. I believe your region hosts your tests a little differently, so she will also leave the school grounds directly after she is done.

"Actually, I remember the principal mentioning to us that her and the other seven will be taking them on the fourteenth, which is the day the boat leaves for Kanto. The boat leaves at night from your only port dock and since Kamille will actually be traveling to Hoenn with me, a fellow advocate of mine, and three others, we'll all be travelling on it just a little longer than the rest. The day that everyone will arrive to their destinations is the twentieth."

"Oh, so the trip there is hardly a week long."

"Exactly! That is why we decided to host the trip a little earlier, because we wanted to use the whole of the summer for this exact project and we did not want any days wasted. By starting it earlier, they even get extra days to enjoy themselves and dive right in to a culture different from the one they grew up with."

"Sounds good."

"Yes. In fact, there is a certain aspect of 'diving into the culture' that I wanted to bring up." Kamille rested her head on her knees, her head facing away towards the kitchen. She listened closely to what her mother and Jacob were talking about, seeing as the trip concerned her, but since she wasn't going to get a word in any time soon, she decided to just eavesdrop.

"Oh? What could that be?" Wait, was there something...? Kamille squinted her eyes in confusion as the two adults carried on.

"Well, first, I have to ask you your view on Pokémon. As a precaution, none of the kids will be interacting with them without permission because we realize that most of your region's people are very neutral towards them because there are, _indeed_, not any here at all. And with none being here, they might not know how to interact with one. Even though I do remember there being a law _against _them being here for some reason."

"Shouldn't you have already known about that? You work from Rusitica Business Corp, don't you? I thought they were the ones hosting the event."

"Oh, I _do_ work for RBC, but I am not from here. So you can understand my ignorance sometimes, I hope." Kamille propped her head up and looked towards the kitchen. What was she hearing? Was that a popping noise?

"I suppose."

"Good! Well, back to the Pokémon. No kids will be interacting directly, _unless _a parent gives direct permission. We didn't want to just bring it up and say that kids will have free reign over interacting, which they _won't_, obviously, we _will _be watching them. We just want to be perfectly in the clear with the parents first that being close to them is alright." What was she _smelling_?

"It's fine with me, as long as you keep your word that you'll _watch _them. I don't want my daughter getting hurt." What could...?

"Of course! Now, I have the papers right here that you'll need to sign to get those words down on paper. Also, one more thing about the Pokémon. As part of the trip we have a mini-project on stand-by at the moment, depending on how many parents allow their kids to do it. It's more of a test than anything." He pulled out the briefcase he had brought with him and opened it up on his lap. "A sort of 'battling' project if you understand where I'm coming from, although that's probably a n-"

"_No!_"

"Exactly!" Kamille turned to look at Jacob frantically with her face contorted in worry.

"Not that! The soup!" She hopped up from her seat on the couch quickly, running the short distance to the kitchen. "Solid, are you still in here too?"

Kamille scattered around inside the room, desperately trying to _first_ put on some oven mitts and _then_ to grab the pot off the stove. She turned the heat off, afterwards leading the pot and all of its contents into the sink where it was then drenched with water. The water hitting the already very hot pot hissed out in the clash and produced enough steam to mix in with the smoke from the burning food, that Kamille coughed and bowed her head down because of it. With her eyes watering, she squinted and looked for her cubone, who she had forgotten had hidden in here earlier.

"Solid?" There was the little, worried squeak. It was coming from beside her, in a cupboard. "It's okay, just come out now, are you alright?" Despite the cubone being safe away from the smoke that had conjured from the failed soup, Kamille had asked anyways, wanting to make sure that her Pokémon was alright. He gave another powerful squeak, pushed himself out and ran up to her, all before clinging to her jeans. She picked him up and hugged him, her eyes still watering even as the smoke went away out an open window.

She looked back at the sink, flinching when she saw the mess. The once white mix had transformed itself into a green and black, sticky goop which happened to still be bubbling under the running water. Kamille watched as the goop filed down the drain and clog the sink, the water rising up now that it had nowhere to go. Kamille sighed, flipped the water faucet off and realized that to fix this, she'd probably have to work on chores up until it was time to leave for the trip, so that while her mom was out working extra hours to pay someone to fix it, she could keep everything clean.

"Kamille! You should have been watching the stove more closely, now look at this mess, you're going to have to work on chores _for a while _young lady do you have any idea how much this will cost, oh I am so _furious _with you right now, I- " Solid took the moment to yell out a 'Cu' much to Emille's annoyance, who turned away from the sink to look at him and point a finger. "I don't need any words in from you, Solid, if anything this is _your _soup an-"

It took a minute for Emille to register that the cubone had been pointing at something. It took a few seconds longer to realize that he was pointing at the guest that they had in the house, Jacob, who was standing up from his spot on the couch, completely flabbergasted, and it took just a little longer in the awkward silence of the household to remember that owning a Pokémon was illegal as they were sparse in Rusitica. Kamille was staring at Jacob as well, realizing too that something beyond anything had just occurred and that the only one out of the four that didn't seem to care was Solid, who looked like he just wanted to take a long nap.

"M-Mr. Jacob?" Kamille had finally called out, easily heard in the tense and quiet room. Jacob was staring in shock at the cubone and snapped out of it only a bit when the cubone started to stare back. He moved his eyes to look back at Kamille, who had obviously looked worried beyond a doubt. He straightened up and turned his face back into something that wasn't so silly looking.

"I-I don't know what to say." He finally admitted. He knew that the Pokémon that they had was illegal (and briefly wondered, _once again_, why that was), and he had a great sense of duty to abide to the law, but he also knew that separating a Pokémon from an owner because of that was just a horrible thing to do. He didn't know how they had gotten him and he didn't ask, but seeing the teenager holding him in her arms protectively made him smile just a bit. "I mean, I guess I shouldn't say anything about this at all."

Kamille let how a long sigh that she didn't realize she was holding in, and her heartbeat calmed down just a bit, still worrying about what Jacob was really going to do, but hopeful, because he actually seemed really okay with it. If he had been anyone else that wasn't raised and born in Rusitica, they would've either called the authorities right away or blackmailed them into giving them something of value. That's how it really was behind the scenes.

"You aren't going to tell?" Emille stood slightly in front of Kamille and her cubone, protectively, like she had been the whole time Jacob was there. "You aren't going to make a big deal?"

"Well, no. I don't think so. In fact, I think this changes a few things... Now that I know something that I shouldn't."Kamille let the cubone lay down on his back in her arms like a baby. He squeaked tiredly and closed his eyes, holding tightly onto his bone. Kamille held him close and shifted her arms so that the pokemon was more comfortable. Jacob moved into the kitchen with them so that he wouldn't have to raise his voice so much just to talk to them. "However... how old is this... cubone? I've seen these pokemon before, but I don't remember them being so... domesticated. If that's the word I'm looking for." Kamille looked down at the little cubone and then back up to Jacob.

"Well, my Dad gave him to me a few months ago for my birthday, um... He had said that the cubone had barely hatched when he got him." Jacob looked over Solid again, as if he was trying to find something wrong with him.

"Your father must travel a lot, being able to get you this." Kamille looked down at her own Pokémon, following Jacob's gaze.

"Yeah, so I don't see him often. He works for RBC too. He tries to sell our stuff to smaller businesses. But you said that this changes things? How?" Emille gestured towards Kamille and Jacob to leave the kitchen.

"It would be ideal first for us all to go back into the living room before anyone started asking questions again. Mr. Jacob, I will be making dinner, so if you need to stay longer, I can make you a meal too, as the hospitable host I am." Jacob shook his head and walked away from the kitchen slowly, answering Emille's question as he stepped away.

"Oh no, ma'am, I don't need anything. I won't be staying long after this explanation. I have business to attend to later, so it's a good thing Kamille is last on my list of people to visit. Kamille followed behind him and walked towards the spot on the couch she had been sitting at earlier and plopped down carefully, as to not disturb the thing still laying in her arms. Jacob followed suit as well, leaning peacefully into the back of the couch for a change.

A silence overtook them for a while before Jacob decided to break it.

"So, about you already having a cubone. As I was trying to explain to your mother before we went to the kitchen, there is a mini-project _inside_ of the project that you are already attending! It's more complicated than this one, however, seeing that it takes more serious dedication and a lot more time. It's sort of an _extension _for the seniors only. Sort of like... an internship?" Kamille let her mouth go agape just a bit. Was he going with this in the direction that she thought he was going in? "Of course, seeing as it does pose as a risk, we'll need parent permission, once again. Even thought you _do _already have a pokemon of your own to start with.

"The 'internship' as I will call it from here on out is actually a highly exclusive job that involves working for all three of the business sponsors combined. If you are officially allowed to become a member by your parents and the staff to join in, you _will _be trained and prepped for making the world a better place a little at a time, all while representing Rusitica in a much broader light than the kids who only get to sight-see. And _you _have a direct chance at getting a shot at becoming one, just because you are a senior yourself. Isn't that right?" Kamille nodded slowly. Jacob smiled and picked up the briefcase he had dropped earlier, taking out the papers he had originally meant to grab.

"Lucky for you. If your lovely mom says yes, me and a few other colleagues are going to teach you how to become a very strong Pokémon trainer." Kamille resisted the urge to spread her joy across her face in a wide smile and almost completely failed in the process. This was that one thing she needed to be happier, this was practically what she had dreamed of doing since she was little, when her father would tell her stories about traveling far away and watching kids battle with their pokemon. It sounded like a fairytale then, but now it seemed like a dream come true.

"W-what did me having a cubone have to do with things being different now that you-"

"Oh, that! You see, you're _especially _lucky. If I hadn't figured out about your little pet, you might not have been chosen by a member of the staff to participate. I'm part of that staff too, just to let you know. I _would _have told you about the internship beforehand, but I _wouldn't _have told you about the test. I would have just continued on saying that we would get the permission now, and _then _we would have seen what your potential was and continue from there."

"What was the test?" Jacob closed the briefcase and set the papers he grabbed out on top of it.

"The first part was to see how good of a moral you had. You passed that part earlier today, and that's how you were able to go in the first place." He waved his hand dismissively. "That way we could get the less caring people out of the way as soon as possible. We needed only nice people to attend generally in the first place. You can't have slightly rude people representing your region when you're trying to get more people to know about it in the first place, it just doesn't work out that way. The second part of the test was to see how well you interacted with Pokemon. We can't have horrible trainers and you surprised me by passing that part of the test early as well as with flying colors." Kamille let her smile grow even wider.

"And all my mom has to do is say _yes _for me to do this?" Jacob put the almost inch-thick pile of papers on the coffee table in front of them.

"That's it! Of course, if she says yes, you'll have a jumpstart above everyone else and start as soon as we arrive in Hoenn, since you already passed everything. You'll still get to sight-see, but in a different way and for much longer. You'll also get paid for doing this. It is great, isn't it?" Kamille nodded eagerly. She thought her cheeks were going to burst with how wide she had been smiling. She wanted to stop looking like such an idiot, but the excitement from doing something that sounded _so amazing _wouldn't vanish, and she had realized... she didn't _want _it too.

Jacob got up from the couch, straightening his suit jacket and brushing his hair back into perfection.

"Now, I forgot to mention, I would pack a few travelling clothes if you can when you go on this trip. And since you'll possibly be travelling in a much different way after the first week, you should probably pack _lightly_. However, I'm sure that you'll be ready for this by next month anyways. As for the papers, just go over them with your mother and turn them in by the first, okay?" Kamille nodded and placed the now sleeping cubone gently on the couch, afterwards standing up and grabbing the papers.

"Will do, Mr. Jacob." Jacob shook his head and held out his hand for a formal handshake. Kamille hesitantly grabbed it, her shyness and anxiety coming back like how it should have been around this stranger the whole time.

"My last name is actually Engel."

"Oh. Will do, Mr. Engel." At that, they both shook hands, the young teenager and the older businessman both feeling as if they made some sort of deal in a strange way. Afterwards, Jacob called out to Emille to say goodbye and walked towards the front door to let himself out. Kamille followed loosely behind and as she was about to shut the door behind him, he turned around just a bit and waved goodbye, hardly being able to be seen in the pitch black night, especially with his dark clothing.

"Goodbye, Miss Bay. I'll see you soon." She waved back shyly, noticing how Jacob's personality seemed to take on his mysterious side once again. Kamille had felt that after he had entered her house and had talked the whole time with an enthusiastic tone to his words, that he would forever be seen as a jubilant person towards her, and that was probably the way it was supposed to be. The scariness that had surrounded him before was almost completely gone now.

After closing the door and locking it, Kamille had finally guessed that that was all because he was simply a _business _man. When he was in public, he had to act cool and confident, however in front of people that were quiet and rather trusting, he didn't have to. Or maybe that was just his way of being charismatic. Either way, her own dad had been that way too, cheerful to them, but professional in front of others.

Still holding the papers, Kamille walked into the kitchen where her mother was cooking spaghetti. The noodles looked close to done and the sauce looked as if it could be finished as well and Kamille admired how her mom was able to make such a dinner without ruining any sort of plumbing.

"So, did he leave?" Kamille gripped the papers tighter, bit her lip, and grinned, nodding her head.

"Yeah! He left these papers for you to sign, but I don't have to turn them in until the end of the month." Emille took a fork and picked up a noodle from a pot with it.

"I'll have a look at them after dinner, alright?" Kamille almost rolled her eyes. Her mother was one for getting things done as soon as she possibly could and frankly, she should have seen that response coming.

"Okay. Also, that mini-project thing that he tried to talk to you about? It's an internship, did you happen to hear what he was saying back there?" Emille pinched the noodle, to check to see if it was cooked the right way. It wasn't.

"I _did _hear what Mr. Engel had been saying, Kamille. It sounds very exciting." Kamille grinned wide again, much to the discomfort of her face.

"So, can I do it? The internship? Please?" Emille smiled and put the noodle back in the pot, as well as putting the fork aside.

"_With a wittle, tiny, chewwy on top_?" She mocked with a childlike voice. At this point, Kamille _did_ roll her eyes and let out a groan.

"Aw, Mom, I'm being serious!" Emille laughed and took the papers from her daughter, who handed them over without a complaint.

"Me too. If I'm not mistaken, he described this like a _life career_." Kamille nodded while Emille skimmed over the pages.

"Yeah! Mom, I have a _gigantic _amount of books on Pokémon upstairs in my room, _you know this_. This is the thing for me, becoming a trainer for a few businesses! Not only did Mr. Engler say that this would help Rusitica out as a whole, but I'll be getting paid for it!I can send some money back here to help you! It's perfect! Can I _please _do this?" Emille sighed shortly, still looking at the paperwork.

"I have no idea why they are still asking me permission to sign these when you are obviously a come-of-age adult."

"Mom, I'm only seventeen."

"What? But you're a senior in high school!"

"Mom, you _raised _ me, you should know that I skipped a grade!"

"Oh, yes. Slipped my mind." Kamille rolled her eyes again. "It still doesn't make sense. Maybe it's because you're still in school and you live with me?"

"Could be it, but can you please check yes for that internship?" Emille furrowed her eyebrows and gave a serious glance towards Kamille.

"Don't rush me or I'll send you to your room without dinner. I'll think about it, okay?" Kamille sighed, but smiled nonetheless. She was confident that she would be able to travel as a trainer in Hoenn.

"Alright. So, is dinner almost done yet?"


	4. Delightfully, So Dreary

How was this happening? How could this be? Everything had gone so perfectly before this, what with Kamille's entire life beautifully playing out before her eyes in a gorgeous symphony of _perfect. _But now _everything _was sliding down a hill on a sled with a pile of spikes waiting at the end like a tragic movie!

_Why, oh why, hadn't she studied for her math final?_

It was a simple thing! Read a book, review over some non-complicated equations, and remember the steps, 'Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Shirley'! Yet she hadn't done _any _of those things. And why was that?

_Because she didn't feel like it._

And now she was sitting here, her head clenched into her hand, her face twisted between frustration, pain, and worry. She gripped her pencil tightly, and went to the circle the answer she had miraculously gotten from solving out a problem purely by pulling random steps out of her head. She was centimeters away from certifying it as her chosen answer, but the real problem was she didn't feel like that was correct one! _What if it was the wrong answer? _She had probably already gotten a few previous questions wrong too and now if she got this one incorrect, then her score would only get worse and eventually she would fail!

"I can't take this anymore!" She yelled outright, standing up straight from her desk that was located on the beach, just next to where the water could rush up and soak her legs and the desk. The waves rolled along slowly and strong, and the air brushed against her face softly. Her teacher, the old man with a growing bald spot pointed at her accusingly.

"Sit down and take you test!" She made a fist with her hand and slammed it down on the desk in anger. The victimized desk then snapped into a billion tiny splinters, the papers for her test fluttering down directly on top of the debris.

"No! Never!"

"Kamille!" His voice changed from masculine to feminine instantly and so did his appearance, morphing into the spitting image of her mother. "Kamille Bay, do as I say!"

The teenager furrowed her eyebrows together in confusion.

"Mom, what are you doing at school?" She asked as the waves rolled on behind her.

"Kamille! Kamille, wake up!" Emille yelled while still pointing. Kamille tilted her head further in confusion and stood there, dazed by her mother's strange words while a football sailing at constant velocity over the olive-green ocean hit her in the back of the head.

* * *

Kamille jolted awake, gasping a bit as she opened her eyes widely, jumping back to reality from a square hit to the head in a dream. She looked to her right as her heartbeat went back to normal and noticed her mother, who was looming over her somewhat with a concerned look on her face. She already seemed ready for work; her long, blonde hair was in a bun and she was adorned in her usual uniform of formal clothing.

"Kamille, it's time to get ready for school." She said after she realized Kamille had noticed her. Kamille herself groaned a bit, unhappy for being woken up, especially since she had come back to conciousness with a bang. Most likely from the back of her head, if she were to take a guess.

Kamille nodded her head sleepily and muttered out an 'okay', closing her eyes just a bit to get used to the sunlight that was creeping in from her bedroom window. Her mother must have been the one to hang the makeshift bed-sheet curtain up against the wall to let the light in. Emille sighed and checked her watch.

"It's six in the morning. I suggest you get up now and get ready so you can eat breakfast. You have an important day ahead of you." Under her drowsy demeanor, the excitement that had built up over the past month was starting to come back as she slowly left the world of the sleeping. She smiled a bit and mumbled out to her mother again.

"Yeah. I'll be up in a second."

* * *

Jacob looked out over the ocean, absent-mindedly gazing at the waves moving constantly under the bright and blazing sun. The water churned beneath the boat calmly, changing from an olive tone to a clear blue one like an equilibrium. It was forced to undergo the constant changes, the satisfaction for one or the other never coming into fruition thanks to the giant ball of gas in the sky that helped the changes in appearance.

Jacob's flat, slicked back, black hair swayed in the breeze for a moment, and he relished in the cool air flowing over his face. He almost closed his eyes to really enjoy the sudden change in temperature around his skin when even the water below rose up and showered him in a much needed mist. When the wind was gone and the water had returned home, he furrowed his eyebrows in suppressed irritation as the heat came back and made him feel like he was burning up again.

In a completely barred fit of frustration, he reached a finger behind his shirt collar and tugged on it, hoping that _somehow _it would eradicate the heat. However, after a moment or two he knew it wasn't working and put his hand back down. With a frown on his face, he leaned over the rail and just continued looking into the distance at the scenery before him. Despite the desert temperature in May, everything was absolutely beautiful.

"Ha! Enjoying the heat, Jacob? Great, isn't it?" Dem walked up from the deck next to him, putting his hands on the rail and looking almost impatiently at the view as well. Jacob sighed and glanced at his colleague in disdain. Dem didn't notice and kept smiling wide.

"You know... if our boss catches you without your full uniform, you'll be in a _lot _of trouble." Dem let out an ignorant snort and leaned back, not falling courtesy of holding onto the rail.

"Jake, I'm pretty dang sure this is okay. I mean, come on! I still got my dress shirt on, and besides. It's _hot_. I'm surprised you haven't even collapsed from exhaustion yet. You're sweating bullets." Jacob put a hand to his forehead. It _was _wet.

"That's just the water from the ocean. It mists up sometimes with the wind and... other things." Dem rolled his eyes and stood up straight again.

"Sure." He unbuttoned his shirt one from the top. He wasn't wearing the usual, black business suit jacket and he wasn't even adorned with a tie. All Dem had on was his severely wrinkled dress shirt and pants (that also happened to have a couple of patches of dirt on them) and his shoes were no where to be seen. His socks were a bright blue and contrasted to the rest of his outfit. Even his hair was a bit of a mess. It was long enough so that he could pull into a pony-tail, but his curly, dark auburn hair was also too _short _and still looked messy, like the rest of him. Some of his hair fell to the side of his face and swayed a little whenever the wind picked up just a bit.

"It doesn't matter, anyways. At least I don't look like I'm a homeless stowaway. When was the last time you took a shower? I bet you smell, but I'm afraid to find out if you actually do." Dem grumbled at his unnecessary insult.

"I took one..." He trailed off, leading Jacob to turn his entire face towards him and raise an eyebrow.

"You took one... _when_?" Dem scrunched his mouth in thought and looked out towards the ocean. When he turned to look back at Jacob and answer, he furrowed his eyebrows and yelled out at him.

"_I took one when I took one, and what does it matter to you_?!" He shuffled around and left the rail, pointing towards the ground dramatically as if to make a point somehow. "I'll take one tonight, when we leave and we don't have to do anything on this boat for days! I'll wash my clothes too, while I'm at it because I know that you and your psycho OCD-ness is buggin' about the dirt on my pants too!"

Dem left in a fit, not noticing the boat's crew members around him staring as he went to his room farther inside. Jacob saw them and he waved at them to get back to work and not worry, and he also sighed and rubbed his face in exasperation afterwards. He knew Dem was only twenty-three, but his immaturity and obnoxious personality was completely uncanny. Jacob couldn't help but compare him to a three year old sometimes. He had his good times, yes. When he wasn't acting like a spoiled brat, he actually got his job done and with some thought put into it.

He guessed that everyone had their faults. Even Jacob himself got a little too enthusiastic sometimes. Then again... _at least he knew how to control it_-

"And not run down to his room like a _child_." He mumbled to himself.

He crossed the deck of the boat and departed from it, leaving the crew members to continue their preparation for the week-long trip to Kanto. As he walked off the last step leaving the boat, he turned around to gaze back at where he would once again be living in for another week. The boat itself was large, however it wasn't the size of a luxury cruise ship. You could see that there were storage areas and rooms below the actual deck thanks to the small, round windows that were placed sparingly along the side. But other than that, it was also considered a little cramped, thanks to the many people working inside and out. Jacob made a sound of indifference as he realized that the boat itself wasn't black like everything else the company had funded and continued walking away from it, ignoring the pearl white transport and it's crew.

Walking past large, colorful containers filled with things he didn't know, the poorly made pavement soon turned to dirt and dust as he exited the port. Viewing a wide expanse of orange and brown desert, he gazed almost whimsically at the large unknown he was peering into. In the distance, he could make out a dark silhouette of the only city in Rusitica... Rusitica City, itself. Walking slowly towards the black car parked in front of the port entrance, he thought of how the region came to be in the first place.

It hadn't been established for too long, he figured. A place with one city and _one only _was virtually implausible to him. Yet that was how it was here. He made a note to try to find a library to look that up in his spare time and got into the car swiftly and silently. Starting up the engine, it came alive with a muffled rev and roared smoothly as he started to drive towards his destination.

During his somewhat long, two month stay working in Rusitica, he had no real free time to think about the origins of a place he hadn't even heard of a year prior. Yes, some simple little things that occurred in this region that didn't happen per the norm in other places set off these questions, however now that he had the time to comfortably gaze into pieces of scenery and listen to his own thoughts, he finally thought he should take the action to find out.

_'In a moment, at least_.' He thought casually, as he drove closer and closer to the large, authoritative building that was what he called his company, as if he owned the place himself. He could already imagine seeing the professionally strained tinted black windows, despite being quite a ways away.

* * *

"Mom, I already packed my bags, what are you doing?!"

"Oh, honey. I'm just checking over everything. You're going to be gone for a while and I just wanted to double check that you have everything." Emille's golden curls moved in front of her face as she leaned over Kamille's backpack, moving things around by emptying the backpack and then filling it with other things. She moved her hair out of her face gracefully, with her other hand still moving to re-pack the bag . The bag itself already looked completely full, with its black fabric stretching beyond what it usually did. "I wish you had more backpacks, this one is so dirty."

Kamille moved around in her room to sit on the bed next to where Emille was shuffling around. She raised her knees to her chest and watched her mother unhappily.

"Mom, it's a black backpack, you can hardly see the dirt." Emille lifted herself up and pointed towards the bag laying complacently on the bed, with other objects scattered randomly around it. As Kamille adjusted herself on the made bed with its blue comforter, some of the objects bunched together closer to where she was sitting. Emille replied to her daughter.

"But it's also _magenta _on the bottom and that part's obviously dirty. It's completely gross, but I don't think I can wash it now." She stopped her pointing and moved to look thoughtfully at the backpack with her manicured-looking hands resting on her hips. "I suppose it'll get dirty anyways. Shame." She began moving objects around again, this time no hair getting caught in her face.

"I don't mind." Kamille said indifferently.

"You'll probably get as dirty as the backpack!"

"I'm sure I can stop at hotels or _something_." She replied. Kamille watched as her mother pulled a few small, worn, paperback books out. Perplexed because she wasn't able to read the title because of how worn it was, she placed all of them but one on the bed and examined the book she had in her hands. Kamille straightened up in nervousness from her mother handling the book and peered at it, trying to figure out what it was as well.

"What's this?" Noticing that Kamille was trying to look at the book cover, she angled it over so she could see it, even though the rose-pink color of the cover was also starting to turn white. Kamille grabbed the book out of her mother's hands nervously and eagerly, sighing a bit in relief when she realized what it was.

"This is my Pokémon book. I wanted to bring it with me so I can refer to back to something on my travels." Emille rolled her eyes and took the book back from Kamille, placing it back in the bag along with the others.

"And I'm assuming these are too?" She asked as she placed the assortment of colorful book inside. Kamille gulped, hoping her mother wouldn't try to look through those.

"Y-yeah. But, uh-" Kamille got up from the bed quickly and grabbed the paperbacks back out of the bag, causing Emille to back off. "I'll just take tw- _three_... of them. I don't need them all, you know, Mom? I've already read through them all about a hundred times, so I just need them as a backup. I'll put these away now." Emille watched skeptically as her daughter put away the rest of the books back on the bookshelf. Raising her eyebrow, she went back to tossing unneeded items out of the bag and placing necessary ones in. A sigh rang out in the room as she pulled out a few crayons from the bottom of the bag. She took them out wordlessly, deadpanned from her daughter's inability to pack sparingly.

Trying to bring back a conversation, she spoke up to her daughter.

"I'm sure that those books you have are outdated, though. Your father gave them to you when you were ten, remember? That was seven years ago. Times change." From her spot in front of the towering bookshelf, Kamille nodded, despite her mother not being able to see. Looking down at the other books that lined up neatly, her gaze turned nostalgic and a little sad.

"...Yeah. I know."

_'Books on puzzles, books on logic, math, art, encyclopedias, almanacs, famous people, history, mythology. I wonder how my dad ever got a hold of these. I wonder how he even knew that I'd like them.'_

"But that doesn't mean it's not useful anymore, Mom. Like I said, it's just a backup." Emille nodded and mumbled a yes in response, walking towards Kamille's dresser to grab some clothes.

"Of course. But be the responsible one and find a more up-to-date book, alright? Be safe out there." Kamille smiled and turned to her mom, her cheeks pulling at her lips, creating dimples on her face.

"I'll try my best, Mom, but I can't promise anything." She said smugly. Her mother pulled a shirt and flung it at her in response, a smile appearing on her face as well. Kamille moved out of the shirt's path in surprise and watched as the shirt dropped to the floor.

"Pick that up."

"But I'm not the one who threw it!"

"I don't care, I'm the mother, do as I say."

"_Fine_." Kamille picked up the shirt off the ground, feeling the grey cotton of it. She walked over towards her mother to put the shirt back and her mom took it, folding it neatly afterwards and putting it back in the dresser.

"You don't have any suitable clothes for your trip in here. It's all old and worn sweatshirts, jeans, and shirts. I don't think this will fair for Hoenn at all, I heard it's very tropical there. Lot's of water and such around." Kamille frowned a bit, looking back at the clothes.

"Well, I guess not, but I don't have any other clothes that can fit. Unless we do some shopping before we have to leave for the port tonight." Kamille felt a rush of excitement and nausea following soon after she mentioned the trip.

"I suppose I can go shop for something while you get ready here at home. All I have left to put in your bag is some food, a pair of pajamas, and your change of clothes, which we've already established that you don't have." Kamille nodded and walked to her bed to start putting away the miscellaneous objects that her mother had found unworthy to keep on travel. She was especially sad to see the crayons go, coloring with her cubone was somewhat of her favorite childlike pass-time.

"Okay. I can take a shower and change into something nicer, I guess. I don't wanna wear what I had on since yesterday. I'm surprised no one said anything about the dirt on my jeans." She said almost bitterly.

"That's a good idea. You can just wear this, it'll be for when you're on the boat. Some nice, casual clothes." Emille handed Kamille a pair of white jeans, along with the grey shirt she had thrown just a moment before. "If worse comes to worse, you can bring a black sweater if you need to. But it's summer, so I doubt it. I don't know how you're able to wear a sweatshirt inside at this time of the tear. You're going to get heat stroke."

Kamille rolled here eyes. That wasn't the first time she's mentioned something like that. Yes, it was exceptionally hot in the sweatshirts that she wore, but she felt uncomfortable without them. She didn't like leaving the house without one on and hardly had anything on its place while even safe in her home.

"I just like them. It's not that big of a deal."

"It is when you can get injured from it. But I won't press on it anymore. I know you know how to take it off if you start feeling dizzy. You're seventeen, after all." She closed the drawers she was searching through suddenly, a pair of pajamas in her hand. "But I'm only going to pack you a sleeveless shirt and shorts for pajamas. You'll just have to stay in your sleeping bag if you're bugged about that. You can't be suffering in your sleep." Kamille almost retorted crossly, but said nothing and made her way out of the bedroom and into the hall.

"Alright, fine." She mumbled. She stopped in the doorway and turned around to look at her mom with a confused expression. "Where's Solid, by the way? Is he still napping on the couch, downstairs?" Emille nodded, placing the pajamas in the backpack and leaving everything on the bed to follow Kamille out of the room. She switched the light off as she left and the room quickly covered in darkness.

"Yes. Growing cubone's need their rest. He's only going to get bigger, remember, he just barely hatched a few months ago." She pushed Kamille gently out of the way and shut the door behind her. She nodded her head towards the bathroom door down the hall. "Now go take your shower. I'll stop at Shartrise's Select Shop to look for some clothes. It won't take me long."

"Okay." Kamille watched her mother disappear down the stairs and into the hallway below. Sighing, she walked towards the bathroom, lost in her thoughts about the trip. She could feel the excitement building up quickly the more she thought about it and almost keeled over in happiness.

She remembered when she was younger, when her kind father would bring home presents from his business trips around the world. She was always left unhappy when her father would leave, making her stay home alone with Emille. The only thing that made everything better in the end was when he would come back with a gift. The first time around he brought back a special rock, a tourist piece that was supposed to signify the unique geography they had.

Kamille still had that present. It stood still in its clean, glass case on top of her dresser. She used to like looking at how it shined when she was little.

Walking into the bathroom, Kamille flipped the light switch on and closed the door behind her. She placed her change of clothes on the bathroom counter and turned on the shower, adjusting the water temperature accordingly.

_'Then there was the second gift..._'

Starting from when she was five, Kamille had always gotten something back from her father after every trip. In all, Kamille remembered figuring out that her dad always left for a few months about three times a year. Like mentioned before, the first present was a rock. The second was something unidentifiable fossilized in tree syrup. Her father had told her a story about that thing he gave her. About how it held _something _that was a witness to what happened a million years ago. It seemed ridiculous now, but before then, it was a piece of a mystery.

Her father must have recognized that she had an ability for listening and learning, because the third gift that year was another thing sold to tourists. A map of a place called Johto, 300 years prior to today. He had said that that was a place of many legends and had told her all he knew about the area. The people, the history. The events, the revolutions, the culture. The pokémon.

The first time she had heard the word pokémon was when she was sitting peacefully in his lap, sleepy from listening to the stories he had to tell. They were resting in an armchair and she remembered it being close to her sixth birthday. When she had gotten confused when he had mentioned the odd word that was 'pokémon', she asked what it was.

He was shocked for a second, and then had calmed down, adjusting the glasses on his face in thought. He then proceeded to tell Kamille about what a pokémon was and she had proceeded to become even more interested in his stories. Animals that could defend you? Animals that could fight and possessed amazing powers? He had described them as such beautiful creatures that consisted of many different species. He had said not a single one looked or acted alike and that they were all different.

Suffice to say, a five-year old Kamille was more than intrigued. She was captivated. And her father knew it.

_'Of course he knew. Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten so many things related to pokémon.' _She quickly and insecurely took off her clothes, hopping into shower afterwards, her short hair getting soaked immediately. _'Dad wasn't the type of person to force things on others. Even today he still plays a pushover. The only thing Dad won't give me is some time to talk to him again.'_

The fourth through the seventh gift consisted of pokédolls, all of which were stowed somewhere in a box in her closet. Forgotten, thanks to growing up. By the time she had received her fourth doll, Kamille was already seven and started showing some brain power in school for being so young. Getting As on tests and and assignments was a cinch compared to the other kids in school. That was why one time, instead of bringing another cute stuffed doll, Kamille's father had brought back a book on puzzles for kids. It was small and not challenging for any adult, but then again, she was only a little child.

She recalled being somewhat upset with getting back such a lame gift, but her love for her father made her look into it, and eventually she was zipping through it, thinking carefully over every question just a little better than any other child. After that, until she was nine, all she had gotten was books on something to do with the mind. The only thing related to the magical creatures she had been told about so many years prior was from her father, who was still able to tell his stories.

She had started getting trainer magazines from her father after that. Those were some of the coolest gifts she had ever gotten, and sometimes in between, he was able to bring home a small book about pokémon that was even more in depth. Rather than talking about the next popular pokémon like the trainer magazines did, the books talked about strategies, types, and famous events. It was exciting and Kamille could only take a guess that it was because of getting these things and showing dedication to learning about pokémon that she got a cubone a few months ago. Her Solid was the best gift she had gotten so far.

Now that she was leaving, she figured that she wouldn't be getting any more for a while. Oddly enough, she wasn't bothered by that thought at all. Mulling it over while washing her hair in the shower, she realized that she had seen it coming. What gift could possibly be better than getting her own pokémon? Getting to train said pokémon of course, but that was already occurring. You couldn't wish for something you already had.

Rinsing her hair out and then finishing her shower ritual by washing her skin, Kamille shut off the running water and grabbed an olive-green towel from the rack directly next to the shower. Pulling it off easily and wrapping it around her body, she stepped out, the bathroom clear of any fog thanks to the vents situated on the ceiling.

She dried off quickly and then got dressed again at the same pace, her insecurity blowing through even day to day tasks despite no one being around to pick on her. She performed her usual hygiene tasks, brushing her hair, then her teeth, etc. Standing in front of the mirror with her hair soaked but clean, she studied herself. It wasn't simply a gaze, or a quick check to make sure she looked alright. It was more of an analytical sweep, asking questions and taking guesses about her appearance.

Her eyes were a little to narrow, like a male's. Why was that? It could be because she was always reading in the dark. Unlikely. Despite that, she had long eyelashes. Maybe her mother had passed that down to her? Her chin was round and girlish, but her cheeks were also a little square. Her nose was cute, small, and round. Her skin was pale like a ghost's, you could see the blush in her cheeks constantly. The bags under her eyes were prominent like that too, they screamed insomnia. Her hair was short, looking dull and drained of color from its original brown. Bangs covered her face. Noticing all of her sickly looking features, she wondered if that was why people always asked if she was ill. It wasn't her fault she like staying inside.

Her eyes were bright in contrast to her dull face. They were brown and green, two colors mixed together to give her her own pair of hazel eyes. You could see some golden flecks here or there, almost seeming to swirl randomly inside. Her eyebrows were a little narrow, making her look like she was in a bad mood. She scrunched them more in thought. Maybe people didn't like her because she looked so mean?

Looking at her face as a whole, she started to feel the uneasiness that went with doing so. The queasy, insecure feeling of realizing that you don't look normal. That you don't look right compared to everyone else. Sure, some kids looked like they didn't get out much either or that they stayed up way too late at night doing whatever. But when you looked too much like the opposite sex when you didn't want to be and got bullied for it, you would start to realize that there was just something not right.

Stepping back from the mirror to look at herself some more, Kamille saw her shoulders. They were slender, like her moms, but they also pointed out a little bit. Her waist was small and her chest was narrow and looked flat, thanks to the view she was facing. She had long, skinny arms. Her legs were like that as well.

Finally getting fed up with how she looked, she exited the bathroom, her mood gone sour and bitter. Trying to calm down, she thought of the trip she would be taking soon while she went into her bedroom to grab a sweatshirt.

* * *

"Kamille, I already put the clothes I bought for you in your backpack. You don't need to look at them until you're on the boat. Just grab Solid's poké ball from the closet and get your shoes on or we are going to be late!" Emille rushed around, grabbing her leather brown purse from the couch whilst putting on a pair of clean, white running shoes. She then ran out into the hallway and then outside, practically slamming the front door behind her in the process. Rushing around herself, Kamille ran into the hallway and walked up to a door located near the stairs. Opening it up, she leaned over and stuck her head inside, rummaging around loudly and sometimes tossing things around wildly. She yelled in irritation, and called for her pokémon.

"Come in here, Solid!" Preoccupied with looking for the poké ball, she almost didn't notice when she felt a soft tap on her leg. Sticking her head out of the closet to turn it around to look at what hit her, she saw her cubone standing behind her, holding his bone protectively. Smiling at him, Kamille stuck her head back in the closet, exclaimed out loud happily and exited it completely, closing the closet door afterwards. Turning around to her cubone who had backed up when she had stepped out, she raised up the object she had in her hands and showed it to him.

It was a regular poké ball, half red and half white with it's black line separating the two sides in the middle. Looking closely at it, you could see that the pokeball shined in the light from the top of the hallway. Kamille laughed a bit when her cubone reached for the ball with his bone, trying to get it. Crouching down to her cubone, she held out the poké ball for him to see. Solid tapped it with his bone like he tried to do before and let out a few noises in confusion.

Trying to explain it, Kamille pointed to the poké ball with her other hand.

"This is a poké ball, Solid. You probably don't remember it because me and mom didn't put you in it at all. We thought it'd be best to just let you stay in the house and run around." She stopped pointing and moved the poké ball in her hand to where it was pointed at Solid and her thumb rested softly on the button. "But now we're going somewhere and you're going to come with me. So you have to go in here for a few days. You ready?" Solid backed up a bit, gripping the bone closer. Seeing his hesitation, Kamille smiled wider at him.

"It's okay, Solid. You'll be out in no time and you'll be able to see a lot of things with me. We can probably make some more friends on the way. Doesn't that sound like fun?" Solid suddenly perked up at the sound of the word 'friends'. Swinging his bone around, he tried to reach for the poké ball again, but Kamille moved it out of his way in time and stood up. "Sorry, I have to do the honors. Here you go, Solid!"

Clicking the button on the poké ball, and moving it back in the direction of Solid, it opened up and let out a red light that surrounded the small cubone, who in turn, jumped happily and disappeared in the fog-like crimson color. As if pulling him in, the light sucked back into the poké ball and it closed, shrinking afterwards. Raising the poké ball to her face, she giggled a little when she saw the cubone in the now-transparent ball. She wouldn't be lying if she said that the cubone looked happy.

Walking towards the door in the hallway, she put on her black shoes that matched the rest of her dark clothing. Feeling the now small poké ball in her hand, she realized that it somehow felt... _drier_ and _dustier_ then it had before. Kamille didn't know how that was possible, and she hadn't read about that phenomenon from any of the poke-related books she had so she shrugged and placed the poké ball in her pants pocket, walking out of the house and locking the door behind her. She figured that the poké ball was just really dusty and she hadn't noticed before.

She heard her mother holler from behind her and she turned around, seeing her in an old, rusty car. Rolling her eyes, she walked up it and went inside, noticing that after they pulled out of the street that the sky was once again slowly fading into its mysterious pitch black sky. She looked down at her watch to look at the time. It was barely six in the afternoon.

* * *

By the time they had reached the port, the sky had already darkened completely. Off in the distance towards the sea, Kamille noticed that there was still a sliver of light visible as she exited the car and closed the door. The door itself squeaked in the process and shuddered as it clicked in place with the car, practically threatening to fall off. Emille got out of the car as well, Kamille's backpack already in hand.

Kamille walked around the car towards her mother, grabbing it from her and putting it on. It felt heavier than normal on her back, but she knew that was only because it was holding more than your simple binder and pencil pouch full of colored pencils inside. Emille sighed and crossed her arms, looking at Kamille carefully.

"Are you ready?" Kamille smiled brightly and nodded, giving her a thumbs up. After a month of waiting, almost having trouble with getting her mother to actually sign the papers when she was having second thoughts about letting her go for such a long time, worrying about finals, and almost running late the day she was supposed to leave, Kamille was finally ready to go on her own.

The feeling of excitement was practically uncontrollable and made her want to just sit down and take a breather, but the fact that she was happier than she had ever been before also made her feel somewhat at peace. She knew that once she was on the boat, she would probably be doing something like laying down on the bed and reading when she would realize that she was going to be by herself for a long time. That her mother wouldn't be there anymore to comfort her or soothe her when something bad happened.

Of course, with that came good things. Hopefully the people in Hoenn were nice. They didn't know _anything _about her or her family, so it would probably feel like starting fresh. It would feel like a new place to call home.

"I'm ready, Mom. Are you going to walk with me to the boat?"

"Well, _yeah_. I'm going to see you off. I'll wish you luck and all that jazz." They both started walking through an assortment of containers resting on black pavement, following the lights at the end of the path. After a minute or two they reached the boat, in its plain, pearl white glory. There were men in white uniforms standing at the entrance, watching them. Emille looked back at them and sighed once more. "I guess I'll have to give you this. They mailed the ticket the other week."

Emille handed over a green pass that held Kamille's full name, along with other miscellaneous information. You could see the shadow of a black boat in the background. Kamille looked back up at her mother, who had a small, almost sad smile on her face.

"You know, if you'd stay here, your father could get you a job for RBC. He's already mentioned that to you. You don't actually _have _to leave." Kamille shook her head.

"And I've already mentioned that I don't want to do that. I'd rather not _crunch numbers _and sit at a desk all day."

"But you'd eventually be able to move on and travel sometimes, like your father!"

"After what, almost ten years? This is so much better, Mom. Besides, I technically already am working for a business. Just not in the way you expected." Emille held in her retort, wanting to say that she thought the other choice was better. She'd rather have her daughter leave at twenty-seven than at seventeen. But she wasn't so cruel as to get her daughter's hopes up about leaving and then crush them suddenly, wanting to make sure that she'd stay safe. It was at about here age when she gotten married, anyways.

Highly against the idea, she had filled out the papers for Kamille to go on her own. What made her say 'ok' in the end was not just the reason being that Kamille was practically already an adult. It was because she could really see that even the thought of leaving made her happier than before. It was just something that she hadn't had the heart to say 'no' to.

Emille hugged her daughter quickly, a tight, caring hug that didn't last longer than two seconds. They were both alike when it came to hugs. They weren't a fan of them, but they could see the meaning behind the action.

In a matter of just minutes, Kamille had walked up to the boat's crew member quietly, showing him the pass when he asked for it. He had nodded, moving out of the way to let her on and when she had completely the whole flight of steps to enter the boat, she hung around outside, not bothering to go to her room. She hovered around the rails, talking to her mother from the top of the boat until the other passengers started boarding, ready to leave Rusitica.

Some of them gave her funny looks, but she ignored them, too nervous and happy to care at the moment. Soon, she even saw Jacob and the other two from a month ago board the boat, talking amongst themselves. They too didn't leave to their rooms and loitered around the deck, waiting for the boat to take off. Once the boat was closed from the dock and the stairs were taken away, Kamille waved goodbye to her mother, who waved back once or twice before putting her hand down. Kamille stared at her mother and the port dazedly as the boat fired up and slowly moved away from the home that she had known for so long. Even a few minutes after it was out of view and the boat was moving at a steady pace, she still looked out at the sea, not able to realize that she was gone.

Somewhere inside her, she felt like a part of her would never come back. Thinking on that for a moment, she couldn't pinpoint if she was happy or sad about that. Rusitica was her nostalgic home, a place where she was never happy. But that's where she grew up and became herself. Then again, she wasn't too fond of who she was, either. Not wanting to become something that wasn't you at the moment, but hating yourself was something that made her stomach tie up in knots.

A hand placed itself on her shoulder and she jumped in shock, turning around quickly. Looking for the person who intruded on her thought process, she saw Jacob, who had his eyebrow raised, confused about Kamille's odd reaction. Donning a different, more calm and less surprised expression on his face, he clasped his hands together and smiled politely at Kamille.

"Are you enjoying your trip so far?" Kamille nodded shyly, embarrassed.

"Y-yeah. So far, Mr. Engel." Jacob nodded.

"That's good. We still have almost a whole week ahead of us before we get off this boat, though. Can you follow me? I'll show you to your room, what does it say on your ticket?" Kamille put her hand in her right pocket, the one where Solid was also located, and pulled out the ticket that she had put in there earlier. She looked down at it and saw the text printed at the bottom that said:

**KAMILLE BAY - ROOM NUMBER 05**

She read the statement out to Jacob, who nodded again and turned away from her and started walking. Kamille followed a few feet behind, folding the ticket and shoving it back into her jeans pocket. She jogged a bit to catch up when she realized that because of Jacob's long legs, he was covering more distance than she was in two steps. He turned his head around for a moment to check on Kamille and then looked straight ahead again.

"Your room is number five, so it's downstairs. The stairs are right over here, down this path. Hopefully it doesn't freak you out, the thought of practically sleeping underwater, does it?" Kamille looked at the back of his head, her face contorted in a weird expression of both confusion and something that wasn't amused, wondering why he would say something so obscene.

"Uh... No. No, Mr. Engel, it doesn't."

_'Or at least __**didn't **__until __**now**__.' _Kamille's face reverted into horror, thinking of all the things that could go wrong. _'Oh, no. What if we end up hitting an iceberg? I can't deal with this! I'll be drowned out in less than a minute! This trip was supposed to end up good, not bad! I can't handle it, I-' _

"That's good." Jacob replied without looking back. Kamille snapped out of her paranoid thoughts and followed the older man silently as they turned around a wall and down a small flight of stairs. Immediately, the scenery changed as they entered another hallway with blue, carpeted flooring that had patterns of what Kamille recognized to be waves, interpreted in lighter blue squiggly lines. The walls themselves were painted a light tan color.

They stopped in front of a wooden door, and they both looked down at the doorknob to notice that there was a key placed inside. Jacob went to unlock the door and opened it, grabbing the key and holding it out to her.

"This is for you, so that way if you decided to exit your room to enjoy the view outside, no one will come barreling in and start rummaging through your stuff. Just as a safety measure. Take it." He handed the keys to Kamille, who took them slowly and then placed them in her left pocket.

Not expecting it, Jacob walked into her own room first, calling for her to follow him inside when she had just stood there, startled. She followed hesitantly afterward and closed the door behind her when he called out again to ask her to do so. Looking around, she saw that the room had it's basic necessities of a bed and a nightstand with a lamp next to it, which was already turned on, thanks to Jacob. He happened to be standing near a rather unneeded piece of furniture. A desk.

"I needed to talk to you in private, you never know when any of the other kids would come running near to us out of nowhere." He fixed his suit jacket sleeve and then clasped his hands together once more. "Since it's been a month since I last talked to you, I need to give you more factual information on what you'll be doing once we arrive. I also have a few things to give to you."

He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a plastic bag. He took several things out, all of which were completely unrecognizable to Kamille. Laying them down neatly on the desk, he gestured for her to stand next to him so he could explain everything. The first thing he pointed to was what appeared to be a silver, cable-chained link necklace with a similarly colored round pendant. The pendant itself had a small letter engraved in the center. A 'K'.

"You can probably wear this necklace now so you don't forget about it. This is what identifies you as a trainer protecting Hoenn under the RBC. It says so on the back, see?" He reached for the necklace and flipped the pendant over.

**Kamille W. Bay  
003364r  
Rusitica City, Rusitica  
GSD Trainer**

Curious about what some of the things meant, Kamille asked. Jacob picked up the necklace and handed it over to her while explaining.

"The numbers under your name are for identification with both being a trainer and to keep your affiliation with the three businesses you're working under. That's why there's an 'R' next to it. Your birthplace is put there for a reason that I actually do not know and GSD stands for Global Safety Division. Because we actually got someone to work in the small project this year, the presidents of all the businesses got together to create that division under all of their names. You're the first to represent them so I hope you work hard." Kamille resisted the urge to gulp and nodded, indicating that she understood.

"Okay." She reached behind her neck and put the necklace on by herself. Feeling weird about the heavy pendant resting against her chest, she listened to the rest of Jacob's explanations.

"Moving on, this is something that RBC made! It's called a DeviceR. You're one of the first to try it out, so it still might have some bugs." He picked up a thick and flat, green, circular-shaped device. It fit almost perfectly into the palm of his hands and had a clear button in the center of it all. He pressed it and out came a small, slightly fuzzy screen. The screen itself had a display of several options. "This little thing allows you to do several things at once. You can check the current location that you're in, look at other maps, call others with the same device as you, _which at this point is not functioning_, look up local news, and a lot more. Actually, I think you can use it as a sort of radar, too? Excuse my lack of knowledge, but they didn't tell me too much about it." He pressed the button again and the screen disappeared. Handing it over to Kamille, who took it with a sense of amazement over her new item, he picked up a card.

"Now, _this _is very important. Because you work with us, you get a discount on items around Kanto, Hoenn, _and _Johto. You can save some money with thing. Not only that, but it's a badge." Kamille looked at it, perplexed.

"A _badge_?" Jacob laughed and flashed it at her. It was a simple, turquoise card that looked like it'd fit better being a _key_card. It read GSD in big letters and also had her name printed out underneath it in a smaller font.

"Yes, a badge. It allows you to apprehend any trouble-makers while you're wandering around. That's what you're there for, anyways. To keep the peace. Eventually, we'll be supplying Silph and Devon with that DeviceR so you can use it to call some nearby police officers for backup if you need to." He handed the card over to her as well.

"Just keep working at it with your pokémon and you'll be able to handle some tough situations by yourself. You look like someone who can handle their own in the end." All that was left on the desk was the plastic bag he had pulled the items out of earlier. He took that as Kamille gazed at the card, holding it a little too tightly in both of her hands. He shrugged at the site and placed the plastic bag in the trashcan next to the desk.

"Not that that's over, you can just put the items in your backpack for now. I also needed to tell you that once we arrive in Hoenn, we'll be travelling with the others towards Rustboro City, where Devon is located. That's where you'll cut off from them and spend a few days training with me, the gym leader there, as well as, _possibly_, the champion. You know who those two are, right? The champion changed almost a year ago, but other than that, everything's remained the same."

Snapped out of her reverie, Kamille nodded at Jacob with the same amazement she had when he had told her about the whole trip a month ago. The look she had on her face was all he needed to know that she had heard of them. He chuckled and patted her on the shoulder, passing her and moving around past the bed to walk near the door.

"Well, don't get too excited. Rest for the whole time you're on here, you'll be up for some grueling lessons taught by them _and _me. You'll probably be soar after the first hour."

The excited look Kamille had changed to horror again at what he said and Jacob just laughed once more and exited the room. In the sudden silence, Kamille whispered to herself despite there being no one else around that could possibly here her.

"... That was _mean._"

* * *

**This chapter took _forever _to write! I kept getting stuck with every little thing. I'm sorry if it's just a completely weird chapter to you, but this one had to be forced out. I was taking too long with it. **

**Hopefully the next one won't be too hard to update. I'm crossing my fingers for it. Really.**

**Anyways, I don't have too much to say. I hope you liked this chapter. Sayonara.**


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